Gozo ministry’s Villa Lauri still closed despite €2.5 million spent since 2019

Another project fronted by the Gozo ministry has gone haywire, with spiralling costs and no end in sight.

In 2019, former Gozo minister Justyne Caruana announced that the ministry had taken over a Villa in B’kara, owned by the Franciscan Friars, to transform it into a shelter for Gozitan students and relatives of patients recovering in Malta.

The aim was to refurbish and open Villa Lauri a few months later. Seven years have passed since the announcement, and the Villa’s doors remain closed.

According to Caruana, a budget of some €1 million was to be used to refurbish the villa. However, costs have now reached €2.5 million, including some €500,000 paid in rent to the Franciscan Friars, according to information tabled in parliament.

When asked to explain what is going on with the project and why it hasn’t opened yet despite ongoing works for seven years, Gozo Minister Clint Camilleri did not give a reason for the delay.

Instead, he said that a new deadline has been set to open the villa sometime during the last three months of this year.

He said the refurbishment works are completed, and the project has entered its last stage.

This is the same reply he gave PN MP Chris Said in 2022. The only difference is that at the time, he said that the villa was to open in 2023.

Currently under the spotlight, the Gozo ministry has become synonymous with late projects and budget overruns.

A significant project, rebuilding a road in Nadur, took more than five years to complete. While its original budget and accompanying tender had to cost under €10 million, they ended up costing €20 million.

Godwin Agius, a former colleague and friend of Minister Camilleri, received more than €700,000 through a direct order from the Gozo ministry.

The same applies to another project connected to the building of an Olympic-size pool at the site previously occupied by a Sports Complex in Victoria.

The project, which had to cost under €10 million and open some three years ago, is still under construction, and the latest costs have already spiralled to €18 million.

The National Audit Office has already slammed the Nadur Road project for its overruns and mismanagement. At the same time, an investigation into the ongoing pool project has been called.

The latter is being built by a company owned by Gozitan construction magnate Joseph Portelli.